Do you have a little money?
Use it
use it all.
If you have a nice house
use it
If you have a nice car
use it
If have pretty clothes
use it
All the diamonds and pearl
use it
have a healthy body?
Use it!
have dreams laid out?
Use them!
ways to mould your world?
use it!
Have one idea on a cloud?
pluck it
use it.
Just have a hope and a smile?
Use it.
If you just have faith
use it
Use it
use it!
Anything you have
use it.
Remember now
Make sure you do,
see,
it blossoms...
Tag: God on everything
Position Yourself
Seek and you will find
the tangible truth
of you
stand firm
do not turn
away from the way.
be honest
about your desires
then leave them
on the alter
do not wonder
what you will find
when you trust
is a sign
that you must
walk a path
lonely
with traveller's dust
to align yourself
stand
walk
run.
Barak
Get ready Barak!
the Lord is near
He marches ahead
with ten thousand strong!
So he took his stance
out of his tent
the wind riding his back.
Kishon valley of death
the trap layed.
Swift and keen
the evil one may be,
today he shall be nailed
pegged to the spot.
To rule you must submit
you must believe
beyond your dreams
beyond all you can see
beyond your cloak of pride.
Know you do not know,
submit!
Or watch the crown
slide to an unkown
braver than your military might.
Will you submit
brave heart,
answer the call?
Freedom from maladaptive daydreaming
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that
Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase
Martin Luther King Jr.
Maladaptive daydreaming is straying from God. The more we get caught up in our imagined make-believe world the less time we have to know God. I know I have been willing to spend hours creating a world of mine to the exclusion of God. The door was not opened in this world, and even if there was a knock, I was too distracted to hear and answer. I was the architect in my world and determined how far I could go. At that point, it felt like freedom, but the truth is I was trapped in my head.
The trick is to focus on God, the things of God, the people of God and less on the self. Focus less on what makes you anxious and what drives your fear, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 6-7, NKJV). Don’t daydream your life away, give everything to God, get out and live, not in your head but in the real world. There is nothing worse than deciding you and not God knows what’s best for you. That’s not true: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Once you break free you realise that daydreaming solves nothing and is just another prison. The word of God is clear: “For freedom, Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). There is no easy cure, however, the best remedy is spending time with God and the word of God. This for me is a work in progress, cause I am still and forever will be under construction. So, instead of seeking after the high of a make-believe world, one should, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” Matthew 6:33-34).
Think about this, maladaptive daydreaming can lead you to become paranoid. You think things that are not true, everyone is your enemy and everything is against you. This is a nightmare, not a dream. The only way to overcome this is to focus on the word of God because as it says in Philippians 4: 8: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” What is true does not necessarily come from our imagination. Instead, we should do as instructed in 2 Corinthians 10:5: We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Your traumas do not define you unless you let them. You cannot drive out darkness by allowing darkness to drive or motivate you. Being a maladaptive daydreamer gives you a foggy memory – sounds familiar – you waste so much time and so you cannot get to your purpose and do the work God has called you to do and so it seems that you are moving cyclically instead on the straight path of progress, you may feel confused, have suicidal or lustful thoughts that really do not align with God or your purpose, you hate your reality and so to escape you start having suicidal thoughts. Does this have anything to do with God? If God is worthy how can we spend so much time on everything else except Him? Madness that we see as normal. Do not be lost in your thoughts as it may entangle you and trap you there for the rest of your life.
Nothing in life is easy and it seems there are a million things to trip you up. However, we have a God who is more than able to allow us to overcome them all. So, we need to trust him more and our imaginations less. Well, that’s all for now.
Grave Clothes
Bitter strips of agony
they ripple and ride
stealthily
ravenous
untamed
mapping all your pain
buried deep within the stench of shame
wrecks the sense
making you feel insane
bound tight
too tight
as you seek the light again.
minutus steps are all promised
leaps defeated
eternity unfolds
slowly
ever slowly
to get out of deathly
grave clothes.
Maladaptive Daydreaming and God
I never thought that daydreaming was a problem. Yes, there were times when daydreaming became the best part of my day. When I couldn’t wait to get from school or later work, to continue with my daydreaming. When I did not want to be interrupted, or talk to anyone because I was good in this space I was crafting for myself. It was my space. There were nights when my dreams were based on my daydreaming, it was so good! So good in fact that I lost touch with reality and my daydreams seemed more real, feasible and comforting than my actual day-to-day life. Even in sleep, it was with me, continuing the escape and pleasure I experienced in my waking hours. Do you see the problem? If not let me tell you: daydreaming took me further from God as I relied on them to help me get through whatever struggles I had, not only did I escape the realities of my problems but the reality of God. Could I have developed a reliance on my daydreams to the detriment of my relationship with God?
Once I realised that my daydreaming was getting out of hand I started leaning into God more, or so I thought. Yes, I would read my bible. As a matter of fact, I have read the whole bible more than once but without much conviction. I learned specific scriptures, but there was no fire behind my efforts. I still went back to daydreaming. I chose it over building a solid relationship with God. There were times when directly after my devotion, I would go back to daydreaming. Trying to fit everything in my day, trying to hit all the checkboxes and getting nowhere it seems. And the inconsistency in my walk with God has become a cyclical dilemma that I have not gotten a hold of. I have been daydreaming it seems all my life, could it really be that bad?
It can be. When we spend too much time in our daydreams we spend less time with real people and even worse, we give little of our time to God. We expect God to wait until we are finished and we can use leftover time to get to Him. What a thought. What a terrible thought! It does take us further from God – But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15). My daydream takes me to places and provides things I cannot get in my reality, desires that are not authentic to God. Simply put, daydreaming can actually reflect opposition to the will and truth of God. So what takes over? Well if left to its own devices our daydreaming can open our thoughts to be controlled by the devil. I remember I was so angry with a situation that did not work out in my favour that the person involved was violently killed in my daydream. I sought retribution on that person, and their family (who I did not know at all) and I threw in some imaginary enemy whom I eviscerated with much gore and took unnatural pleasure in. I totally lost sight that vengeance belonged to the Lord and in no way did I care about forgiveness. It took me down a very dark place and I was not even aware of it because it felt so satisfying. And don’t think I haven’t created situations where I am the victim and face great opposition from everyone and no one is to be trusted I have. I have even shed tears imagining how bad my situation could get! About how if I died that would be so sad but finally people would miss me but by then it would be too late. Man, this thing can get deep!
So think about it, have you allowed whether now or in the past, your daydreaming to take you to and has kept you captive in a dark place. also here is a sobering thought, daydreaming can become a disorder. Where does that leave our relationship with God? Hopefully, we can consider this next time.
It’s Not Yourself You Doubt…It’s God
There I am giving myself a pep talk for the hundredth time, “Come on, stop doubting yourself.” Then an epiphany, it’s not myself I doubt, it’s God.
I seem to have often lost sight of God in the confusion of trying to find myself – ironic. What is that even about? I have noticed that it is hard to know yourself when you don’t trust yourself to do anything without making a mistake or outright failing. What I know, then becomes covered by failings and regrets. So, I don’t trust myselves to do the simple things, for I see potential failure in every action. But there is something even more sinister at play. When I doubt myself it’s because I am using myself as a scapegoat. Yes, that was the true epiphany, behind the self-disgust and self-criticism is the sad truth, I don’t trust God to fulfil His promises to me.
What are the Promises of God?
God has promised to strengthen us when we are weak. However, many people become weak because they forget this promise or don’t believe it. It can seem impossible to believe in the middle of a challenging situation. God has also promised to take care of all our needs. Yet, we often doubt how we will receive the things we need and how we can accomplish certain tasks. We forget that God has already promised to take care of our needs. When we fail to get what we need, we blame ourselves for not being enough, not being smart enough, or not being resourceful enough. However, we fail to acknowledge that we have totally ignored the promise from God to take care of all our needs. Then we pray for God to help us and then turn to unqualified, ill-equiped persons just like ourselves forgetting that we have to wait. We do not wait for an answer but proceed to answer our own prayer to God in a timeline that suits our desires and not the desires of God. God promises to work everything out for our good, yet we get disappointed when we don’t get the job, or end up where we don’t want to be. We feel that there was something we could have done to make things happen in the way we think they should happen. We are not thankful for the rejections, for the nos and for the delays. Really we get mad at ourselves for not being enough. The sad truth is we don’t trust God to know what is best and just leave it all to Him. He promises to be with us and to protect us but we never remember this when we feel alone, we wonder what’s wrong with us, why we have no friends and we try to mould ourselves into people pleasers to keep those who were never meant to stay with us around. We are not confident that God can take care of us, so we worry about everything and everyone and never venture beyond what we can see and understand. Then there is the promise of freedom from sin. Here we feel our sins can never be forgiven no matter what because they are so bad, so unforgivable, even though God already promises through His words, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8: 34-36). We are keeping ourselves shackled to our sins by not believing that we are free of them through Jesus Christ. And because of these doubts, we lack the peace that comes from God. We cannot find it in exercise, yoga, motivational quotes or daily affirmations but in the word of God, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:26–27).
Now, the safest way to combat your doubts is to live in the word of God. I have been guilty of skimming and not living in God’s word to my detriment. It can seem hard to daily turn to the word of God for sustenance and the enrichment of our faith, but it is vital for survival. We are too busy, but are we making the effort to find the time. As for me, I know I am not and that is not a good place to be. It is vital to the survival of our relationship with God and victory over the challenges that rush at us on a daily basis. Also, we have to strengthen our prayer life and be consistent in all things, whether we see them as major or not. When our communication and connection with God is undermined then doubts creep in and take hold because we have lost sight of the one who truly sustains us. We have to nurture our relationship with God so that our faith grows. We have to practice letting go and letting God no matter the outcome. We have to trust, that His ways are always better than our way. We have to trust that He will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert for us. Not because we deserve it or because we have earned this great and wonderful gift, but because He is faithful and does not give us what we deserve but what we require.
ramblrWrites.com 